Saturday, June 16, 2007

Myths of Vatican II

There's a great thread over in the Catholic Answers Forum about things that Vatican II did NOT call for, contrary to all popular opinion otherwise. I wanted to list some of those things here.

In spite of what you may have been told, once upon a time, Vatican II did NOT call for

The Mass entirely in the vernacular language (eg, English)

Doing away with Latin in the Mass

Doing away with Gregorian Chant

Doing away with Organ music at Mass

Doing away with communion on the tongue

Doing away with women wearing head coverings in Church

Removal of altar rails

Priests saying Mass facing the people

Not doing penance on Fridays

Not needing to confess serious sins before receiving communion

Doing away with "archaic" practices such as saying the Rosary

In fact, for the first three items on our list, the exact opposite was called for in Vatican II documents:

In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue. Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass.~Sacrosanctum Concilium, Paragraph 54

The musical tradition of the Universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The Church acknowledges Gregorian Chant as specially suited to the Roman Liturgy. Therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.~Ibid, Paragraph 112 & 114

It looks like the fox has taken over the hen house, folks. At least for the past, oh, 40+ years or so. It makes me sad that most seminarians today are not required to study Latin. Hopefully, if the pope issues the expected motu proprio, allowing priests to say the Mass in Latin without needing specific permission from the local bishop, this will change. After all, Our Lord did promise that

That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.Matthew 16:18

Well, I'm actually not confused as to why: Pope John XXIII said, "open window" and "fresh air" and people who were chafing at the bit for radical change just ran with it. So...yeah. Perhaps your priest is right!

"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark